Effect of dietary protein and taurine on enzyme activities involved in cysteine metabolism in cat tissues.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to T Park.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
A case of chronic follicular pyeloureteritis is presented. This rare lesion, not previously published in the American literature, must be differentiated from primary renal lymphoma and generalized malignant lymphoma of the nonHodgkin type.
Sixty patients, treated with postoperative radiation therapy following radical hysterectomy and pelvic lymphadenectomy for stage lb carcinoma of the uterine cervix between Jan. 1980 and Dec. 1984 at Department of Radiation Oncology, Yonsei University College of Medicine, were retrospectively analysed. The minimum follow-up period was 5 years. The indications for postoperative radiotherapy were positive pelvic lymph node (34 pts), a large tumor size more than 3 cm in longest diameter (18 pts), positive surgical margin (10 pts), deep stromal invasion (10 pts), and lymphatic permeation (9 pts). The overall 5-year survival rate was 81.8%. The univariate analysis of prognostic factors disclosed tumor size (less than 3cm, greater than or equal to 3cm) and the status of the surgical margin (positive, negative) as significant factors (tumor size; 88.1% vs 6.3%, surgical margin; 85.5% vs 60%, p less than 0.05). Age (less than or equal to 40, greater than 40 yrs) was marginally significant (90.2% vs 73.1%, p less than 0.1). Multivariate analysis clarified two independent prognostic factors; tumor size (p = 0.010) and surgical margin (p = 0.004). Analysis of the tumor factors with the radiation dose disclosed a better survival rate for patients with a positive surgical margin who were given over 50 Gy than for those who were given below 50 Gy in patients (4/4, 100% vs 2/6, 33.4%; p = 0.06). Significant complications requiring surgical correction were not observed. In conclusion, it is believed that the status of the surgical margin and tumor size both have important prognostic significance, and that a radiation dose over 50 Gy is advisable for patients with a positive surgical margin.
Renal adaptation of the kitten to altered dietary taurine intake was assessed using proximal tubule brush border membrane (BBM) vesicles. Three groups of kittens were adapted to purified diets containing 43.5% soy protein that were either taurine-free (OT) or contained 0.15% taurine (NT) or 1.0% taurine (HT). The plasma taurine concentration of the kittens fed OT decreased from 104 +/- 25 microM to 16 +/- 5 microM and 1.7 +/- 0.5 microM in 1 and 6 wk, respectively. Feeding HT increased plasma taurine concentration to 350 +/- 116 microM in 1 wk. Compared to NT, taurine accumulation by BBM vesicles was significantly elevated after 4 wk of feeding OT and decreased after 2 wk or less of feeding HT (P less than 0.05). Maximum renal adaptation occurred by 6 wk of feeding OT (206% increase in taurine uptake/15 s compared to NT) and by 2 wk or less of feeding HT (43% decrease in taurine uptake/15 s compared to NT). Evaluation of transport kinetics using renal cortex from groups of four kittens (16 determinations) fed NT, OT (12 wk) or HT (10 wk) revealed a Vmax of 55 +/- 10, 123 +/- 24 or 39 +/- 7 pmol.mg protein-1.10 s-1 and a Km of 32 +/- 7, 16 +/- 2 or 37 +/- 8 microM, respectively. The differences in Vmax and Km were significant between NT and OT (P less than 0.05), but not significant between NT and HT (P greater than 0.05). Our results suggest that renal adaptation of the kitten to changes in dietary taurine occurs with modifications of both Vmax and Km of the taurine transport system.
Cases of penetrating ureteral trauma (17 gunshot wounds and 4 stab wounds) seen at two New York City hospitals over a nine-year period were reviewed. Early urologic complications (defined as urine drainage from the wound for greater than 2 weeks or need for a second operation) occurred in 50 percent of patients with a proximal ureteral injury but were less common when a nephrostomy and stent were used in the repair. A similar beneficial effect of stenting was seen in published cases, with a 91 percent complication rate for unstented repairs and a 15 percent rate when stenting and nephrostomy drainage were both used. The effect of stenting on midureteral repairs was less obvious, but the rate of urologic complications was lower in stented cases. None of the patients with distal ureteral injuries suffered a urologic complication. Stenting with and without a nephrostomy tube also produced good results in 2 patients with proximal ureteral injuries diagnosed late. We conclude that repair of penetrating ureteral injuries should include stenting and nephrostomy tube drainage in cases of proximal injuries, as well as generous debridement and water-tight closure. Midureteral injuries accompanied by gastrointestinal, pancreatic, and major vascular injuries should be stented and proximal diversion considered when prosthetic materials are used for vascular repairs.
Deterministic simulation models are used to show that HIV transmission dynamics in homosexual populations can be strongly affected by sexual partner selectiveness. The type of selectiveness or biased mixing examined is where individuals with similar new partnership formation rates are more likely to form a pair than would be expected by chance. The effect of such selectiveness could be strong even when the total number and distribution of new sexual partnerships and sex acts remains constant. This means that in order to predict the future course of HIV transmission and identify the populations at highest risk, we must have information not only on the frequency of new sexual partnerships and types of sex acts, but also on who has sex with whom. Given high sexual partner selectiveness, some groups of homosexuals with low rates of sex and new sex partners would take many decades before a single introduction would generate an epidemic. Epidemics in these groups can be markedly accelerated by only modest contact with higher risk groups. Even in very low activity groups, which if isolated would have no epidemic, an important proportion of their members can be infected when they are not selective. The relative risks of AIDS in groups making high numbers of new sexual partnerships compared to groups making low numbers are markedly affected by sexual partner selectiveness. The models developed were examined using information collected in 1984 from the Coping and Change Study in collaboration with the Chicago Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study. This population was divided into activity groups by the rate at which individuals established new sexual partnerships and then a structure of new sexual partnerships between these activity groups was defined consistent with available data. Even without introducing any behavior change in the models, the proportion of the homosexual population infected was seen to level off temporarily at around 50% after several years as a consequence of saturation in the high risk groups when lower risk groups were not yet being consumed by the epidemic process. Most sex in the study population is casual or anonymous. The sample selection procedures were biased toward individuals who engage in such sex. There is, however, a large group of individuals that avoids the casual and anonymous sex scene. Simulated epidemics indicated that under a variety of conditions, the population that does not engage in casual and anonymous sex could experience an epidemic of HIV infection quite some time after the epidemic in the population that does has waned.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
A rare case of congenital herpes simplex virus type II infection is reported in a 25-week premature infant. Transmission of infection was thought to be transplacental, and the infection was rapidly fatal ex utero due to extensive antenatal disseminated disease.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
We report a case of diffuse endobronchial polyps contributing to continued respiratory failure in a patient 5 wk after titanium tetrachloride inhalation injury. After the institution of corticosteroid therapy, the total number and size of remaining polyps were markedly reduced at which time the subject was successfully weaned from the ventilator. Follow-up bronchoscopy at 2 months, 5 months, and 1 yr postinjury revealed gradual but complete resolution of all polyps accompanied by improvement in the patient's obstructive airways disease. This delayed complication of inhalation injury has been previously reported as a complication of thermal respiratory injury, and may be an important contributing factor in prolonged or late respiratory failure in burn patients.
Cardiovascular physiologic monitoring was undertaken in 12 patients undergoing transurethral resection of the prostate with the aid of flow-directed Swan-Ganz catheter and the Automated Physiologic Profile. Cardiac and pulmonary pressures and physiologic parameters were derived pre- and postoperatively. Resecting time, body temperature, intravenous fluid administered, serum hemoglobin, and sodium also were recorded. Of the 12 patients studied, 66 per cent experienced a drop in their cardiac index as well as their left ventricular function after surgery. Myocardial function curves revealed that 7 patients (58 per cent) had decreased cardiac function, 2 had no change, and 3 had increased function. Four patients with preoperative pulmonary wedge pressures (PAW) over 9 mm. Hg experienced depressed cardiac function. Three patients were resected for over sixty minutes, and all experienced depressed cardiac function. Vital signs, serum hemoglobin, or serum sodium did not reflect this change. We believe that relative hypervolemia, undetected elevation of pulmonary wedge pressure. We believe that relative hypervolemia, undetected elevation of pulmonary wedge pressure, and prolonged resection are factors that depress cardiac function and increase the risk of cardiovascular complication in transurethral surgery.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
This report reexamines experimentally the problem of competitive indeterminacy in mixed-species populations of the flour beetles, Tribolium confusum and T. castaneum. Indeterminacy takes the form of alternative competitive outcomes: in some replicate cultures one species exterminates the other with a probability, say p, whereas in others, the opposing species wins with a complementary probability, 1-p. The conventional explanation for this is the genetic founder effect hypothesis--an explanation based on genetic stochasticity. The experiment reported here partitioned indeterminacy into founder effect and nonfounder effect components. The results implicate demographic stochasticity, not classical genetic founder effect, as a factor influencing the identity of the winning species.
Two species of flour beetles, Tribolium confusum and Tribolium castaneum, respond to neutral pith disks impregnated with aqueous extracts of their pupae in such a way that the adults and larvae tend to select the extract of the other species. These findings have implications for the population ecology of Tribolium.
The current research (1) examines empirical evidence to substantiate the relationship between substance choice and chronology of onset of anxiety and substance use disorders, and (2) provides information on the specificity of substance choice among anxiety disorders. A study group of 181 subjects in the Harvard Anxiety Research Project (HARP) who had a history of substance use disorder were the focus of this examination. Subjects whose anxiety disorder had an onset before their substance use disorder (primary anxiety) were compared with those whose substance use preceded onset of an anxiety disorder (secondary anxiety) for differences in distribution of subjects among categories of substance of abuse. Primary and secondary anxiety groups do not have different ages of onset for substance use disorder, nor was there greater likelihood for choosing alcohol for any of the anxiety disorders. However, there is a decreased risk of alcohol use in the small group of generalized anxiety subjects and an increased risk of opioid use in the small group of posttraumatic stress disorder subjects. There was no indirect support for the self-medication hypothesis. Neither age of onset data, specific substance association, nor proximal diagnosis association support a simple interaction. The strongest finding supported an "avoidance" of CNS stimulants.